Life-Saving Collaboration: Tulsa's Community Response Teams in Action

In 2017, the City of Tulsa was receiving more than 1,300 mental health-related 911 calls annually. City services were strained, and emergency resources were stretched thin.

In response to this remarkable realization, a partnership between the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa Fire Department and FCS was formed. This partnership, known as the Community Response Team (CRT), serves in part to triage callers suffering from mental illness and place them with dedicated mental health professionals. Once callers are stabilized, CRT helps them obtain long-term stability by linking them to appropriate mental health services.

In this episode of OK State of Mind, we speak with three members of CRT to learn more about how this unique collaboration puts the right resources with the right people at the right time.

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Transcript

Justin: Stress and mental health was identified as one of the top three issues affecting Tulsa, identified by the Community Health Needs Assessment. And things like this, the Community Response Team have been innovative ways at directly addressing the needs that are affecting our community.

Dee: Welcome to OK State of Mind, a Family and Children's services podcast. 

I'm Dee Harris, your host. And today we are honored to welcome three distinguished guests who have been pivotal in advancing the community response team in Tulsa. The Community Response Team, also known as CRT, is a partnership that not only enhances our emergency responses, but also significantly contributes to community safety and wellbeing.

The CRT is comprised of a Tulsa Police Officer, Fire Department Paramedic, and a Family and Children's Services Clinician. The team responds to 911 calls that involve somebody in a mental health crisis. CRT was created in 2017 after the City noticed It was taking more than 1, 300 [00:01:00] yearly mental health related 911 calls, many of which were repeat mental health calls and not emergencies. 

Please welcome Captain Shelly Seibert. She serves as the mental health coordinator for the Tulsa Police Department and leads the Mental Health Unit and the Community Engagement Unit.

Shelly is a licensed professional counselor and is currently assigned to the Special Operations Division. 

 Captain Justin Lemery is the Director of Emergency and Medical Services for the Tulsa Fire Department. Under his leadership, the department manages several key initiatives, including the Community Response Team, the Alternative Response Team and the Overdose Response Program.

And Amanda Bradley is the Vice President of Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services, also known as COPES, at Family and Children's Services. 

Together, these leaders and their teams are not only responding to crises, they are actively working to save lives and improve the quality of life for all Tulsans. And so with that welcome Shelly. [00:02:00] 

Shelly: Hi 

Dee: and Justin. 

Justin: Hello 

Dee: Amanda 

Amanda: Hello, 

Dee: Will you give me a little history about how the program came to tulsa and what it is?

Amanda: We've been in existence for just over seven years, and how we came to Tulsa, all three of our agencies worked together to figure out a plan to bring a mental health co response team to Tulsa. Let's go back to 2016 when we actually all got together and realized that there were some situations and issues that were not being addressed. So what we realized was that, Tulsa specifically is fifth in the nation with the highest rate of individuals who suffer from some kind of a serious mental illness.

Research shows that only about 15 percent of those individuals are actually receiving some kind of treatment. 

So through our partnerships and our work together, we realized that a lot of those calls of individuals that were suffering from a mental illness were actually going to 911.

They weren't coming to us as the mental health professionals. So we worked together to figure out how do we partner to get those individuals some help. 

Dee: So I'm sure that you all felt that on the [00:03:00] front lines every day. Can you tell a difference just in the last seven years, of the impact that CRT has made?

Shelly: Sure. I mean, when we look back, even at 2015 and 2016, when we were looking at models, police officers were spending hours in emergency rooms with someone in crisis. There weren't a lot of beds in Tulsa. We were tasked with transporting people across the state of Oklahoma, sometimes three hours away, and it put a lot of, strain on the police department's manpower.

And also, the person in crisis, it's not good for, for them. So, we started looking at the problem. It was actually the Tulsa Fire Department, and the Fire Chief Michael Baker at the time, who brought this issue to my attention, that we were going to the same addresses over and over again on calls. And, and we were trying to look at the root causes for that.

Like, why are people calling 9 1 1 for, chronic issues, like medical issues, mental health issues, and not utilizing the resources already [00:04:00] available in TULSA. And a lot of times it's because family members don't know who else to call. There wasn't a 9 8 8 then. There was a COPES at that time, but just getting that out into the community.

So when there's an emergency or someone perceives emergency, they call 9 1 1 and so we were getting those calls. 

Dee: Right. So how does this differ from a traditional model? Obviously a co response is a collaborative between a mental health professional and first responders, but it goes even deeper than that.

Can you just explain that a little bit? How it differs from a traditional model? 

Shelly: The traditional police model, on any call that is a priority call, there are at least two, police officers on that call. So two patrol units. If someone is suicidal, you'll get a EMSA unit and a fire unit. So it was a lot of resources going to someone who was just in a mental health crisis, and not a danger to the public.

So it's all these resources, all these calls, it's very expensive to do. The [00:05:00] co response model puts police, fire, and COPES in the same vehicle, so it's one vehicle responding to the police call. And so even if there are other units en route or there, we're able to release them to go back in service 

Dee: And you know, so really, we were one of the very first to instigate the co responder model in Tulsa. There was one in Colorado, is that right? 

Justin: Yeah. This community response team is a unique model.

It's not one that you would see in every city in America, even other cities that have co response teams. And so Colorado Springs was one of the first, which is the area of the city that we went to, to kind of look at their model. And I think it's important, you know, you can go a lot of different places and see a lot of different models, but you got to make it work for your city. And so through the Innovated Model , thinking and some of the planning , community response team was developed, and what I like to say is this unit does bring so much value in regards to, um, you are really putting [00:06:00] professionals together who work together. Their team dynamics matter in this type of stuff.

 And so when you're talking about, combining a mental health professional with a police officer, with a firefighter paramedic, uh, together, you can leverage their expertise and their knowledge all together. And really be a force multiplier within the system, meaning you're able to get those other 9 1 1 resources back in service.

And there's so much, data and research out there, , kind of being developed and a lot more on the horizon, the effectiveness of these co response models and how they're really providing a good service to the most important people, and that's our community members. 

Dee: Yeah, and it's putting the right resources with the right people at the right time, I'm guessing.

So really, if it's a mental health related 911 call and the co response model CRT goes out, what happens? What does that typically look like? 

Shelly: So, when we, look at a, what's called a CAD screen, which is where the police and fire calls come in. So we look at that, we pull those right off of there.

So we're [00:07:00] not dispatched out. We see them, we see if it fits our criteria, we go. The police department's required for safety, scene safety of course, and making sure that the, uh, legal rights of the person are respected. So that's kind of where we go. We make sure everything's safe and then we hand it over to either fire or to copes. 

Amanda: I think another unique piece about that is how we operate and we've, , like Justin was saying, we've learned some things from the different models and then what works for our community as well. So that back end navigation that we've added to our team as well. 

Dee: Yeah. Explain that a little bit more about this navigation piece. 

Amanda: Yeah, so the navigation piece is actually newer with our co responder team. So, when we went to Colorado Springs, we brought back pieces of that model that wasn't one that we necessarily started with, but we realized that it was necessary and needed, and so we've been able to implement that as well.

So, that means that we have back end navigation of all of those crisis calls, meaning that case [00:08:00] managers work with the individuals. After they've been stabilized in order to help them figure out what they need in order to obtain long-term stability, that could be linking them to the right mental health services.

It could be helping them figure out where food resources are. We really look at all of the social determinants of health and then meet those needs for them. 

Dee: That's great because that's after a crisis obviously. You know, somebody calls 9 1 1, they're maybe suicidal or something.

So, CRT goes out. Stabilizing in place, taking them to a facility, how does that work? 

Justin: Well, yeah, that's something that, We really pride ourselves on with these co response teams. Is they're really providing a great resource in, in regards to, you think of the typical 911 system, somebody responds, they take care of that situation, and then it's over.

And then nobody, nobody follows up with that individual and thankful for Family and Children's Services in this circumstance is that never stops now. [00:09:00] Now that individual gets followed up with and make sure that they're getting that assistance that they need to continue that care. And we've seen difference in that, that staying with that, individual to make sure that care gets, continued, has really helped to reduce some of that 911 usage of some of our most vulnerable populations and 

Dee: For calling after a crisis and then calling again 

Justin: Absolutely. 

Dee: I mean, even if you're in a crisis, the moment is passed, but you're still dealing with the underlying issues on why you're there in the first place, right?

Justin: Absolutely. And you said something a little bit ago, and I wanted to kind of go back and talk about it. You know, when we look at this, when you look at CRT, especially, some of these incidents, especially the CRT you're responding to, these are elevated incidents. You can look nationally, you see these on the news sometimes, and in some areas, they may not go so well.

And this team here with those individuals, those three agencies there, they're able to handle that in a really good way. And I, I don't know if enough light is shown on that aspect because these can be complicated [00:10:00] situations that, that cannot go well if you don't have the right people on scene.

, and that's what CRT does. 

Dee: They're the headlines basically. And so you're preventing the headlines from happening. 

Amanda: I think that's just a great way to also kind of give another example of that stabilized in place because we all work so closely together and because the team is actually linked to COPES which is 24 7.

We can stabilize individuals out in the community and know That there's going to be follow up done with them. Maybe it's in a few hours, maybe it's overnight, maybe it's several times throughout the evening in order to stabilize them and then get them connected to the right kind of services. 

Shelly: I want to just bring up an example of us responding together. We had a , individual climb up a tower in North Tulsa and we responded and what this team gives, and it wasn't just our CRT team.

We also had our alternative response team was out there as well and our integrated response team. So, we had a variety of clinicians, trained mental health officers on scene and the fire department who. They're also CIT [00:11:00] trained crisis intervention. And so, we were able to put the team and the fire truck up in the bucket to talk to the individual.

Dee: And that included the COPES individual, correct? 

Shelly: The COPES clinician was originally there. And then, um, eventually came down and it was police and fire up there. But it was actually the, uh, keep giving shout out to the fire department was the fire fighter. 

Justin: That's why we like you Shelly 

Shelly: who built the rapport with the individual.

Um, which shows that's that's how we move forward. We might be police forward at first and back up. A lot of times people want to talk to fire because they have the medical background. Um, and so we were able to just kind of play off of each other. There's three people in the car and the bucket. There were three people as well.

And so someone there can build that report and they're all trained to do that. 

Dee: And that that incident ended well. 

Shelly: Yes, it ended within a few hours and a few [00:12:00] years ago we had someone in a tower and it was days they were up there and we had our crisis negotiation team out there. So we had a different response.

Dee: so I want to talk a minute about communication and collaboration because everything you're talking about are very different entities and Very different expertise, very different ways of probably approaching a problem.

How have you worked through that and what is that, I mean, what have you learned in this process that might help others? 

Justin: I think, well, I'm going to answer the second part of that, first, what have we learned that helps others and do you have a lot of conversations with a lot of different programs around the nation who are doing co response?

Something, That I hear a lot and something that I do believe we're doing very well is we do have very intentional communication. And it's multi layered. It's not just one thing. And so, there's daily communication. So these teams communicate daily with the case management or the back end work to make sure we're following up with that individual.

Also have [00:13:00] weekly communication with all the staff together in the same room. I think that's incredibly valuable because now we can just have those real conversations. Um, I, I think we've seen sometimes there's conversations had, but they're so high level that nothing can actually occur or they're so spaced out that nothing can occur.

Well, I think here in Tulsa, these teams, uh, we directly address that. And through that daily communication, that weekly staffing meeting. Uh, and then we also have strategic vision where we get together and we just have our conversations with everybody in the same, the leadership. Uh, about what's going on, how we can improve some of these processes, because this is, this is not simple, and this is fairly relatively new, uh, co response.

It's not something that there's 50, 70 years of research on these programs, and a lot of this stuff is being developed, and so that intentional communication about how we can improve, Captain Seibert, I mean, you talked a lot about the uniform training for co response, and some of those areas that we can, we can, um, develop, and so I, I really just think, continuing those conversations and making them intentional is really where [00:14:00] we've had a lot of good success in Tulsa. 

Shelly: I think a part of our success was building out an operations manual, a lot of other co response models don't have that. We recently went to a conference where we presented and we were asked for our for operations manual.

 It really defines the role of each agency and we all agreed and came to consensus of what that would look like. So for police, when we say we have a legal issue or we can't take someone into custody or we have a safety issue, you know, we're kind of the authority on that and they defer to us. When it comes to clinical assessment, we defer to Family and Children's Services. And then for medical, if a fire says this person needs to go to the emergency room or they're in a medical emergency or need something, we defer to that. 

Dee: So leaning into each expertise, which is really a lovely partnership.

Shelly: But having that agreement and understanding the roles before you're on a call and having a clear understanding of that, I think is what's, important. The police department uses something called an [00:15:00] operational triangle, so the first foundation of that is safety. And it's not just physical safety, it's legal safety, are we doing what's legal and right, psychological safety and physical safety for the team. So we do that first before we start rapport building and then we can move into that and then we can move into problem solving.

So we layer that approach and with these three disciplines in the car, it's really easy to do that. 

Dee: So, training the team, is there special training that they do besides their own training within their specialty?

Amanda: I think the training is so important, especially what we've implemented throughout our co responder models.

 Just like you were talking about, just understanding each individual's role because the mental health professional's role may look very different and we needed to have that understanding of what is legal or what the paramedic will be doing while they're on scene as well. So, Those training pieces, we got the whole team together and we do training to make sure that we go over all of the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of each of the [00:16:00] disciplines to ensure that they're all working together.

Justin: Yeah in that operations manual outlines, a lot of those things. I mean, it's from small things, you know, to, to larger things. It could be, Hey, uh, we work on these certain holidays or we're going to be operational when it's snowing outside or it's the safety items that, that the Tulsa police department provides for us.

And we appreciate having , but it outlines those items and really tries to get into some of those gray areas. You know what I mean? That, that we all, sometimes these teams have to operate out of. And like I said, they are, escalated events sometimes. And so we want to leverage those all three agencies knowledge base and wisdom, uh, and try to get the best outcome for that individual and keep everybody safe. You know, a big talk, for, first responders, is mental health wellness, and making sure that we're keeping our people mentally healthy for these long careers. And this stuff plays into that.

When you're able to put a co responder on team, and you're able to [00:17:00] remove, you know, I'll talk about, you know, firefighters from fire trucks from that, from that situation, in. It, it eases them, puts them in a better situation because they may not have this level of training that these co responders do, and I assume it's fairly similar for the law enforcement as well.

Shelly: Yes. So when we respond to any call, the first thing we're looking at , is there a public safety threat? From there, has a crime occurred? So before we ever even get to whether or not someone's in a mental health crisis, we have to check those boxes, right? So it's a little bit different. And we've all seen, even here in Tulsa, you know, tragic stories of police and someone in crisis, the encounters that can happen and the use of force that comes from that and sometimes a death. So we've seen that we responded to that. Um, I think what's really interesting about our relationship right now is We're built around a program response, but now we're working together on a system change all the way from when we first get the call, 9 [00:18:00] 1 1 dispatch, and you can go all the way to alternative courts.

We have a continuum of care. So the same people in this room right now, the City of Tulsa, bought into this, they hired a chief mental health officer, they're working together to change the whole system. So, officers won't be getting those calls that they really shouldn't be going to, the low level calls.

They'll be, they'll never even see those on the screen, and that, kind of to Justin's point, is that helps with the mental health stuff, too. I mean, officers do have a fear of going on a call like this and needing to use force, and, you know, With what's come out over the last few years officers are being charged with crimes related to these things So they were really hesitant.

They're afraid especially when a crime hasn't occurred and it's just someone in crisis yet There may be something that becomes a threat and they have to use force 

Dee: well, I personally think that the CRT is one of the gold stars of Tulsa and the work that they're doing I think last year the mayor gave CRT a proclamation saying this [00:19:00] much But I'm sure you all think the same thing, but why do you think it is?

Is it the reduced hospitalization? Is it the reduced utilization of services and first responders? Is it better public safety? I mean, if you were to name a couple things that are just, are like, this is why I think this is such a great model. What is that in your opinion? 

Shelly: I think for us besides the 911 response, the crisis response and having the different disciplines in the car and the things we've already talked about, I think it's finally looking at an issue. How many times are we going to these calls?

What are the root causes for 911 response to health calls? And the most important thing I see out of this is the backend navigation that Amanda already spoke of. It's not a one and done. And the traditional response with police. was going out and just leaving someone out. And they're not stabilized.

They're just left in their home with no resources or they're taken to emergency rooms or they're taken to jail because jail is a [00:20:00] quick turnaround. So we really moved away from that to diversion programs. And I'm really proud about the Tulsa Police Department because our training is really high and I think any patrol officer can go out and and know what to do on a crisis call.

We give them additional tools and resources and the follow up that's so important. So that, so, someone's just not falling off into a black hole. Okay, we stabilize them, we're gone, and a week later, they're in the same place. , situation. We have now this backend follow up where COPES and Family and Children's Services has dedicated teams and, and there are backend navigators to all our co response models and then they form their, really their own team.

Right. Yeah. So I think that's what's so important about these co response models. 

Amanda: When I think about what makes the community response team is so unique and the gold star. People were calling 9 1 1 in a mental health crisis or behavioral health crisis and they're getting experts that have great tools to use such as police or the fire [00:21:00] department.

But now we've given them an extra set of tools. We're putting that mental health professional in the car with them to arrive on scene just because someone called 9 1 1 and didn't know to call mental health professionals. Now we're providing that to them. 

Dee: Immediate response. Right. 

Amanda: Right care at the right time.

Dee: Yeah. 

Justin: Yeah. And echo, what these two fine ladies over here said. You know, stress and mental health was identified as one of the top three issues. Affecting Tulsa, identified by the Community Health Needs Assessment. And things like this, the Community Response Team have been innovative at directly addressing the needs that are affecting our community.

This puts great people together that are experts that this is what they do every single day together and addresses that and responds to those people in need, copes, follows up back in. This helps things on many levels. From the system perspective, to the human perspective, you know, just the individual , to first responders.

 Teams like community response team and co response teams, are force multipliers in cities. 

Dee: So there are just so many partners that are [00:22:00] instrumental in the founding of the community response team.

Amanda: There really are. There were so many people who helped us in the beginning when this vision was coming to light in Tulsa and how do we make it a reality? Another one of those groups were the graves. 

Dee: John graves. 

Amanda: Yes. I know that he was a ex Tulsa police officer, so he really had that vision to be able to see what we were doing and had a passion to help us out as well.

Shelly: we talk about the co response models and the right resources, at the right time, every time, and, when you look at the agencies themselves, it applies. We had the right leadership at the right time to make this happen.

It was the grassroots where this came from. It was the Mental Health Association. It was non profits. It was advocacy groups calling out for co response models, and they recognize the importance to partner with first responders and not have an adversarial relationship that we needed to work together.

And from that we got support from the United Way. to [00:23:00] start a, a pilot project. And from there, we started collecting that data that we needed to show the City Council, to show people, look, this is how we can improve services in Tulsa. And from that, we were able to grow. And I really wanna say something.

Our former Deputy Mayor, Amy Brown, really assisted in bringing this program along and making it full time.

Dee: And the Zarrow Family Foundations were also key in getting this collaboration going. This program would not have been possible without all of those individuals.

Shelly: I also want to make sure that we talk about the Hardesty Family Foundation and how they, from the very beginning, stood beside us to make sure that these programs started, they've donated a vehicle. The CRT vehicle was donated. 

Dee: It's beautiful too. And I know that's made such a difference, not only with recognizing the CRT and just having a more of a community awareness about the services and what this is and who these people are and why are they all together and, and, and, It just, it changes the, [00:24:00] public perception about how they're here to help you in a crisis. 

So let's talk about the Alternative Response Team and the Integrated Response Team.

So, Shelly, I'm going to let you introduce what those are and why they were implemented. 

Shelly: Yes. So we applied for a grant, Connect and Protect, and we received it. But family and children's went above and beyond as they always do to partner with us and not just hiring one person to put in a division, they match that. So we were having a gap after those business hours and this was, um, this is a model that's used across the country too. We embedded a clinician at each patrol division. So in Tulsa, we have three patrol divisions and we embedded them for the afternoon and evening hours. They're in their own car, but they can respond to any call with any officer and and they're in a designated geographical location. So it really cut the city in thirds. CRT responds. It's one unit that responds to the whole city. IRT, [00:25:00] it's in thirds. So it's tripled the response right there.

And the clinicians have learned to talk on the radio, to look at police calls. 

Dee: They know all the acronyms. 

Shelly: Yeah, they're learning all the 10 codes. So it's really great. And you know, the police department, I was getting calls like, when are, when are they starting? When are they starting? It's something that's really well received and, wanted by officers, they want that expertise out there with them, so they can make just the legal judgments and, and allow the clinical judgments to be made by those mental health professionals. So they operate from one to nine, Monday through Friday. Some divisions are a little bit different than that, but that's generally the schedule and they go out and they're available at any time on request.

Now they don't go out to calls by themselves because we have to address the safety issue since it is a 911 call, but they are available and they're really It's been really well received. 

Dee: Oh, I'm so glad. Filling the gap and bridging that gap.

And the alternative response team [00:26:00] is doing the same type of thing, too. Can you explain that a little more, Justin? 

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. So the alternate response team one is what we call them. It's a slightly different model than the community response team in that it has a firefighter paramedic who is CIT trained along with a COPES clinician for family and children's services.

Uh, they respond and employ very similar to community response team in regards to their self dispatching, their monitoring CAD, and that's anything that comes to the fire side or police, they're looking at the system and seeing appropriate calls, much like the community response team does. And to echo what community response team does, you know, they do a really good job of finding calls that are appropriate for them to go to where they're providing that value.

And so art one response to those crisis response or behavioral health crisis. They also respond to what we call 911 high utilizers. or people who are calling 9 1 1 a lot to try to get assistance through the 9 1 1 system. So if a firetruck's on [00:27:00] scene with an individual who's maybe called 911 20, 30, 40 times, they can call for ART1.

And we've really seen significant value with getting a clinician on scene and beginning those social services and that psychosocial assessment to begin moving that ball forward. Because, we've operated another program and just really success rate for connecting with that individual is fairly low.

And so ART1 is able to kind of bridge that gap and get those people the help they need. And so this has been really significant. And so, ART1 has those staggered hours as well from community response team. It's operating Monday through Friday, , from 10 to 7. And so, they're roaming around the town, though, and looking for ways they can provide value through, crisis response as well as behavioral health, 911 high utilizers.

Dee: So are there other communities looking to Tulsa to model after us? I know that, you know, we went to Colorado Springs and really took a close look at what they were doing there. It, you know, it feels like we're doing such innovative things to solve problems here.[00:28:00] 

Are there others that are trying to model after us? 

Justin: Yeah, one in our own state, Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City very soon will be deploying some co response models , multiple teams actually. And so , they have taken a lot of the language from us. And, lots of conversations, Amanda, you were on one of those.

Amanda: You know, and it just reminds me of, we were just doing a presentation when we were in Omaha, Nebraska, and they reached out and asked to meet with us about our co responder models while we were there. So, we had a meeting just while we were there two weeks ago. 

Justin: I think that's what's kind of neat about Tulsa is, well, We have some, we have some issues in our community that need to be addressed and they need to be, um, looked at and what's the best ways to, to address those.

And we're very fortunate, we have a couple different models here with CRT, IRT and ART1 that we can look at these from different lenses in different ways. And what's great about it is even while we're doing this and we're continuing to grow and find new ways to improve these [00:29:00] situations, they're operating very well together.

All these teams. And I really, I do think that speaks to the two people to my left, very innovative, very forward thinking and really looking for answers and not, problems or reasons why we can't. And I think that's why we are where we're at today. , but Oklahoma City is one, , we, talked Omaha.

Speaking of, , we have conversations with them about expanding out, there's been many, uh, there's a lot. So I think it's very exciting time for co response, very exciting time in, addressing crisis response in our nation and what's some of the best ways and methods forward.

Dee: Yeah. I mean, I think this has been such a problem for so many years. This does feel like something that's moving in the right direction and it's just so exciting to talk about. such great innovation used to solve such huge problems. 

Amanda: I just love to be able to listen to all the different models and hear the different pieces.

And it just brings me back to what you said at first. It's us having the communication to be able to figure out, , what model works for our community and that there may be numerous [00:30:00] models that we need and how do we work together to implement those. And, I just wanted to bring that back that you'd said that even in the beginning.

Dee: So, you know, you were saying that there's great things happening in Tulsa. Tulsa was also one of the 31 tech hubs selected by the U. S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration as part of a 500 million investment in strengthening economic and national security. So I understand you're doing some interesting work with technology.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Justin: Yeah. So, being designated a tech hub, definitely. Supercharges, I think is a word that's been used that industry. And so, we've been doing some stuff with, Unmanned Air Systems, or UAS, in robotics for a number of years in Tulsa. But since we've started kind of growing some of our co response programs, we have implemented, in that technology with some of those programs too, like drones , or unmanned air systems to, improve situational awareness on some of this crisis [00:31:00] response that we see in the city.

And so we've had these programs in place for a little while. So now we've had this ability, , to test some of these things out. And what we've found is that through this, we have improved situational awareness. We have found out things that weren't, necessarily accurate while being on scenes that has improved the safety of our first responders and our mental health professionals on scene.

 And also helped to ensure that that situation was mitigated safely for everybody involved. , I'm going to keep going back to this because I think it's prevalent and it also improves first responder, mental health wellness. This is tough work and so being designated a tech hub has really, like I said, supercharged, our ability to develop and innovate.

And so, lots more stuff on the horizon in regards to our capabilities, , but in regards to crisis response. 

Dee: Yeah, how does that, I mean, obviously situational awareness, but what other ways can it be used? 

Amanda: I, I can give an example of that. [00:32:00] So as a mental health professional thinking of where this technology comes in and what do we do with that in a crisis situation, We think about de escalation and we use our voices and we use our mannerisms, but how do we use technology for de escalation?

One such situation would be when, a drone was used to be able to look in a window and be able to see that someone was safe to be able to deescalate the situation, family members that have arrived on scene. So the situation was very escalated. , our first responders are there, mental health professionals are there, but by the utilization of a drone, just to be able to see that the individual wasn't in the type of crisis that had presented itself to us at that time, gave us that time to be able to deescalate and, put some distance between that situation. 

Dee: And I'm sure there's the safety component of all this too. 

Shelly: Yes. When I think about the person up on the tower, there were, the fire department had a drone up and it was at a, it was at a distance, but you could still see. And [00:33:00] what that allows us to do is to get a look at the person 360 to see if there's a gun on the waistband, if there's some kind of threat like that, because we really were evaluating at that time.

Is this person a threat to the community or just themselves if we have to do a tactical disengagement and leave? So that the drone allowed us to do that and I was on scene I was able to see that footage. It was really great Now, you know, the police department has body cams and I think that allows us to do We review calls, we train from those calls, so it's been very helpful for us using that technology.

And of course, Chief Franklin really brought our department along in technology. 

Justin: I'll put a little plug in here again. You talked a little bit about, co responder week last year. And this coming up year in September, we will have co responder week again. And what we really want to do is raise awareness about what these teams are doing. We want to engage within [00:34:00] the community.

We're going to have a lot of great events coming up for that. where these teams, these crews are going to be out there and engaging and having conversations about what we're doing. I think it's a great opportunity for the community to learn more about these teams, as well as us to have meaningful conversations with the community about needs and where we're at, because, that's what makes this great.

And I do believe that, you know, Tulsa, we have a really great community. I mean, we really do. Very supportive or we wouldn't be here today. When you talk about the Hardestys, you talk about Tulsa Area United Way and Mental Health Association, and Family and Children's Services, all these great community partners and resources coming together to, to tackle a specific cause.

And it really does take a village. , and I think we're very fortunate and not that, that we're a finished product by any means or, you know, we were where we want to be, but we do feel like we're moving in that direction. So I would encourage that, , co respondent of the week this year, , for anyone to come out and, and talk with these teams, talk with these great people.

Dee: And we'll have that information on the FCS website. Will you all have [00:35:00] it on yours as well? 

Justin: Yes. 

Dee: Absolutely. So, what's next for the community response co responder model in Tulsa? 

Justin: I think right now, you know, we're, we're in discussions on, , improving that process from the time that call comes in, immediately. Because that's really for crisis response or mental health 911 response.

That's what kind of where it starts is in the dispatch center. , and so how can we start that process quickly, get the right people there, and, and keep other resources where they need to be. I think that's a big area that we're looking at improving or, or evolving as we move forward as well as continuing to kind of track, what we're doing so we can improve outcomes.

And I think we're always looking to find how we can improve. And it starts with data and having the right information and then sharing and tracking that so we can all improve.

Shelly: What we're doing right now is working with Healthy Minds through our First Responder Advisory Council on the crisis system as a whole.

We've been [00:36:00] looking at LA County's model and kind of adapting that to Tulsa, and we're doing a lot of mapping, system mapping, and I know that Our 911 director has been working with Amanda over here so she can talk about the changing of the protocols. 

Amanda: Yeah, I'm really excited actually about being able to work with them in the 911 center.

We have clinicians through all of this, one of those lessons learned is we've really realized that having someone that can be almost like an air traffic controller for all of these different corresponder models is important. to make sure that the right team is on the right call and that we're using our resources to, our best abilities.

And so through this project, we're really looking at what having the clinician in there and helping with this mapping of the 911 calls that come in and then making sure it's dispatched at the correct team level is going to be put in place. 

Dee: Well, thank you all for joining me today. I really hope this conversation helps elevate this to individuals that may not have any idea what this is and how, just the great work you're [00:37:00] doing in Tulsa. So thank you for your service and your dedication. 

Justin: Dee. Thank you. I got you A little community response team challenge 0.0. Thank you. I love cover. Of course you did. I got a sticker and that's wonderful. Little coin. I'm so happy. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. 

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